Protection Action, Gustavo Hernán Ávila Orejuela v. Ecuadorian Social Security Institute IESS

The protection action is granted against an illegal blockade of the retirement pension of the client, Gustavo Hernán Avila, by the IESS, after having initiated a summary proceeding against the client aimed to collect some outstanding monthly dues pertaining some pension contribution forms that the insured prior and repeatedly requested to have annulled.
The victim asked the judge in charge of summary proceedings for IESS to lift the blockade order because it goes against his fundamental rights to work, property, social security, protection of the family, and personal dignity; it was an illegal act by a public authority because such a blockade had the effect of seizing his retirement pension, even though the Constitution prohibits such embargo. In the claim, hearing and pleadings there were mentions of the rules of the Civil Procedure Code and the Social Security Law which were violated by the judge in charge of summary proceedings for IESS: among others, that which provides that a retirement pension blockade may only be ordered subsequent to a judicial declaration of insolvency of debtors and guarantors. The First Chamber of the Provincial Court of Pichincha accepts the protective action because the challenged act goes against constitutional and international standards protecting workers and enshrines the right to retirement. Given that the retiree’s pension was seized in noncompliance of Article 99 of the Social Security Law, which establishes the authority’s obligation to obtain a prior judicial declaration of insolvency.